Chapter 15 #3
She was so little. Warm little body curling instinctively against me while tiny fingers grabbed the front of my dress. The baby blinked up at me curiously before letting out a soft happy sound, and just like that, every ounce of anger inside me melted into horror instead.
“How could someone do this to you?” I whispered. The baby touched my cheek clumsily. I felt sick.
“She needs her family,” I said quietly.
Malrik watched me carefully from the table.
“If you’d like one,” he said, “I can provide that as well.”
I looked at him blankly. “What?”
“A child.” His expression remained calm. “You could choose one yourself. Or we could create one naturally.”
Revulsion slammed through me so hard my stomach twisted. “You are actually vile.”
His gaze stayed fixed on me. “You’d look beautiful pregnant.”
I wanted to crawl out of my own skin. “Don’t talk to me like that.”
“You’ll be my wife. ”
“I would rather die.”
The baby made another soft little noise in my arms completely oblivious to the tension poisoning the room. I held her closer automatically. Malrik noticed.
“You’re softer than you pretend to be,” he murmured.
“Shut up.”
“You care.”
“I’m not a sociopath.”
His eyes darkened slightly with amusement. “No,” he agreed softly. “You aren’t.”
The baby started playing with the necklace around my throat while I tried not to cry from sheer rage and helplessness.
“What’s her name?” I asked the nanny quietly.
The woman hesitated. “She… she doesn’t have one yet.”
I looked at Malrik in disbelief again.
“You didn’t even give her a name?”
“She isn’t staying.”
Something dangerous moved through me. Sharp. Protective. Terrified. I looked down at the baby again as she smiled sleepily against me. No name. No family. Sold like an object, and suddenly all I could think was: What if they do something to her? What if nobody even knew where she was?
The thought hollowed something inside me out. “She deserves better than this...”
Malrik stood slowly from the table.
“You’ll learn eventually, Emerald,” he said quietly, “that deserving has very little to do with how the world operates.”
He walked toward me then. Close enough that my entire body locked up. His gloved fingers brushed lightly against the baby’s cheek. Not affectionate, but possessive. As if he was examining property. The baby grabbed one of his fingers instinctively. His eyes lifted to mine.
“If you become attached,” he said softly, “her departure will upset you.”
Ice slid down my spine. I understood. This wasn’t kindness or generosity. This was a test.
The rest of lunch passed in a blur. I barely touched my food.
Not when she was sitting in my lap playing with the diamond bracelet around my wrist like it fascinated her more than anything in the world.
Every few seconds she’d look up at me with those huge hazel eyes before smiling again, and each time it hit something inside me harder than the last.
I held her the entire time. Even when my arms started hurting. Even when the nanny quietly offered to take her back. I couldn’t let go. Not after hearing what he planned to do with her. Not after hearing him talk about her as if she was furniture.
I sat there in the middle of this obscene luxury while Malrik continued eating across from me like we were discussing business contracts instead of a human life.
He talked occasionally—something about shipments arriving overseas, security concerns, wedding preparations—but the words barely registered.
Everything around me sounded distant. Muted. All I could focus on was the tiny hand curled tightly around my finger. She had the smallest fingernails I’d ever seen. Tiny little pink crescents.
Every now and then she’d babble softly at me in complete nonsense before grabbing at the ends of my hair with clumsy little hands. Once she laughed—a real laugh—and the sound hit me so unexpectedly my throat tightened painfully.
She trusted so easily. She didn’t know she was trapped here. Didn’t know monsters existed. I gently brushed my thumb across her cheek while she stared up at me sleepily.
“What kind of life would you’ve had?” I whispered quietly.
Malrik glanced up from his wine. “You’re becoming attached.”
I ignored him completely .
The baby stretched slightly against me before yawning so hard her tiny eyes watered. My entire body softened.
“Oh my God,” I murmured. “You’re so cute.”
Malrik watched the interaction carefully. Studying it. Analyzing it. Like everything else.
“You’re looking at her like a business investment,” I snapped suddenly.
“She is one.”
I looked at him in disgust. “She’s a baby.”
“She’s valuable.”
“No,” I said sharply. “She’s innocent.”
A flicker of something crossed his expression then. “Those two things rarely coexist for long.” The words settled horribly inside me. Somehow, I believed him. Not about her, but about his world. This world. Violence. Manipulation. Power. It consumed everything eventually.
The baby suddenly grabbed my finger again before shoving it directly toward her mouth. A startled laugh escaped me before I could stop it.
“She’s trying to eat my hand.”
The nanny smiled softly from near the wall. “She’s teething. ”
I looked down at her in disbelief. “That sounds awful.”
Another tiny laugh bubbled out of her, and just like that, for one brief impossible second, I forgot where I was. Forgot about Malrik. Forgot about Nikolai. Forgot about the nightmare wrapped around my life. It was just me and this tiny little girl smiling up at me like the world wasn’t cruel yet.
The shouting erupted somewhere outside my bedroom doors. The sound shattered everything drawing me out of my thoughts. Heavy footsteps. Raised voices. Something slammed hard enough against the wall outside that the baby startled violently in my arms.
I stood immediately, holding her closer instinctively. “What the hell was that?”
The guards near the doorway suddenly straightened. Tension snapped through the room so fast it made my pulse spike. Another crash sounded outside. Male voices barked over one another followed by what sounded horrifyingly like a scream. Fear crawled violently up my spine. I looked toward Malrik.
“What’s happening?”
He calmly reached for his napkin. No rush or concern. Just wiped his mouth slowly like this happened every day.
“Malrik? ”
No answer.
The baby started fussing nervously against me from all the noise.
“What is happening?” I repeated louder.
Still nothing.
He rose from his chair with smooth composure before adjusting the cuffs of his suit. The absolute normalcy of it made the fear worse, because whatever was happening outside clearly wasn’t normal. However, he acted like it didn’t matter and already knew the outcome.
One of the guards suddenly pressed a hand against his earpiece. His posture changed. The guard and Malrik’s eyes locked. Then something dark settled over Malrik’s face.
He looked toward me and smiled. The expression chilled me straight to the bone.
“How predictable,” he said softly, almost amused.
My stomach dropped so hard it physically hurt. The baby whimpered again in my arms as another violent crash exploded outside the doors.
Then yelling echoed somewhere deeper inside the estate. I froze. Malrik walked toward the doors calmly while the guards immediately moved around him. I stared after him in horror.
“You’re just leaving? ”
He paused near the doorway before glancing back at me, and somehow that smile looked even worse now.
“You should lock the doors after me,” he said casually. “Things are about to become unpleasant.”
The doors shut heavily behind him. I was left standing alone in the middle of my room holding something tiny and innocent while the world outside turned violent all over again.
The baby buried her face against my shoulder as distant shouting echoed through the estate. I held her tighter. Surrounded by all that darkness…she felt like the only good thing left in the room.